Yankees Vs. Red Sox

BASEBALL

Zim

The Uniform Still Fits For One More Conflict

NEW YORK — Long before the Red Sox battered the Indians to alter the Yankees' path to the World Series, this city began to brace itself for the possibility of a championship series pitting rivals.

Ever since Todd Pratt's drive eluded the glove of a leaping Steve Finley Saturday at Shea Stadium, the idea of an actual Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees had fans abuzz. But before the Yankees can consider a meeting with their crosstown rivals, they first must get by an older rival in the American League Championship Series.

Before a pitch has been thrown, this Yankees-Red Sox pairing has historical significance. It marks the first time they have met in the postseason, a situation made possible when the playoffs were expanded in 1995.

fare. When the Yankees and Red Sox had a one-game playoff in 1978 and when the Dodgers and Giants had best-of-three playoffs in 1951 and 1962, the games were considered part of the regular season.

The Subway Series, particularly those of the 1940s and '50s between the Yankees and the Dodgers, were the only postseason series that took the shape of a rivalry. Chicago's Cubs and White Sox and St. Louis' Cardinals and Browns played each other in the Series one time apiece, hardly enough to call it a rivaly. The Red Sox and Braves never played in a World Series when both called Boston home. Same with Philadelphia's Phillies and Athletics.

And isn't it somehow fitting that Don Zimmer, the last of the old Brooklyn Dodgers still wearing a major league uniform, finds himself in the middle of this latest Yankees-Red Sox connection as well as a candidate for a front-row seat for what could be the first Subway Series in 43 years.

Zimmer has been part of all of the majors' chief rivalries, seeing most from both sides of the fence. He was a player for the Dodgers and a coach for the Giants. He is in his second tour as a Yankees coach and was a manager and a coach for the Red Sox. Zimmer was also part of the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry as a player and manager with the Cubs, although he never worked for the Cardinals.

``I think of all of them the Cubs and Cardinals is more a rivalry between the fans of those areas,'' Zimmer said. ``It's heating up a bit now because of [Mark] McGwire and [Sammy] Sosa.''

Zimmer doesn't see the same animosity between Yankees and Red Sox players that he remembers from the 1970s, when he managed Boston.

``Then the players hated each other,'' Zimmer said. ``They got in fights on the field. Now the only fights are in the stands.''

Interleague play, which began in 1997, made it possible for the Yankees and Mets to play each other in the regular season. In the Yankees' dugout for all those games has been Zimmer, the third baseman on the original Mets of 1962.

``Casey Stengel was the Mets' manager, and he had some animosity for the Yankees because they fired him,'' Zimmer said. ``He wanted to beat them so badly in spring training, but they were just too good.''

Zimmer believes nothing will match the intensity of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry in the New York days.

``Guys spent more time with the same team in those days, and you really felt strongly about beating those guys,'' Zimmer said. ``I remember when Sal Maglie was traded to the Dodgers, nobody would talk to him when he first came into our clubhouse because he had been hated so much when he pitched against us for the Giants. Look at Jackie Robinson. When he was traded to the Giants, he quit rather than play for them.''

Zimmer did not play in the last Subway Series, in 1956, because he was recovering from a beaning by Reds pitcher Hal Jeffcoat in June. But Zim was part of Brooklyn's only World Series championship, in 1955. His closest friend on the Dodgers, Johnny Podres, pitched a shutout in Game 7. Zimmer had a part in the victory, too.

In the sixth inning, Zimmer was removed for a pinch hitter. In the bottom of the inning, Junior Gilliam moved to Zimmer's second base position. Taking over in left field was Sandy Amoros, who made a game-saving catch of a drive by Yogi Berra.

The New York Baseball Writers cited the incident when they honored Zimmer with its Casey Stengel ``You Can Look It Up'' Award in 1996. Said Zimmer: ``That's got to be the only time a guy got a trophy for being involved in a double switch.''

The '78 season was one of ambivalence for Zimmer. His Red Sox lost a 14-game lead from mid-July to mid-September, then won their last seven to force a one- game playoff in which Zimmer's heart sank as a routine fly ball by Bucky Dent dipped over Fenway Park's Green Monster for a three-run homer.

``I remember telling myself, `That's an easy out,' when Dent's ball went up,'' Zimmer said. ``And now at Yankee Stadium, I get to watch it just about every night on the big screen out there. But I wouldn't give up that situation for anything. Playing for a championship is what it's all about.''